Social media and Web Technologies for Innovation and Growth - courses for professionals

Linnaeus University offers free industry-tailored courses for professionals in the digital sector. The courses are developed within the project Social Media and Web Technologies for Innovation and Growth and are designed together with industry and funded by the Knowledge foundation.

We bring together industry expertise, the latest best practices and research insights with leading business experts, for you to acquire the latest knowledge and skills in your industry. Our tailor-made courses are designed in bite-size online modules with an adjustable pace set by you. All materials are accessible online, with minimal onsite meetings to meet leading industry practitioners and exchange real-life case insights. We offer flexible admission and prerequisites validation that meets the needs of professionals. Linnaeus University offers newly developed courses at university level that keep you and your company up to date with key areas and trends in the IT field.

Our Courses

The available courses are clustered in three areas agile product and service development, Web and mobile development and digital marketing strategy. Other areas are under development. The coming courses starts Spring 2017 (week 16).

Agile Product and Service Development

Agile methodologies enable businesses to focus on value in their product development, building the right product faster and more efficiently. How is this done? How does it affect the business? These courses address both management and development issues associated with agile product and service development. By involving industry experts, the course is guaranteed to provide you with the latest knowledge and tools. Since the participants come from different organizations, facing similar issues, the workshops provide an ideal platform for cross-fertilization, trading war stories and insights.

Web and Mobile Development

If recent history is any indication, the importance of web-based and mobile applications can hardly be overestimated. These courses address commonly encountered problems, namely how to produce stable applications that work across multiple platforms.

Digital Marketing Strategy

To remain relevant, companies need to adopt a different approaches to the traditional marketing practices and actively manage every stage of the customer journey.

Courses 2017

Agile for Business 3 credits

This course is for product managers, executives, and engineering managers in organizations that have already made, or are about to make, the transition to agile product and service development. An agile approach impacts the entire organization, and management buy-in and understanding is critical for its success. The course addresses strategic, organizational, and operational issues, and provides you with the necessary tools to become an efficient leader in an agile organization. Specific focus is given to Scrum, the most widely adopted agile methodology. The total effort to pass this course is typically around 80 hours, including on-site workshops.

Agile in Practice 4.5 credits

This course is for software professionals (developers, UX designers, QA analysts) who want to dive deeper into Scrum and apply the methodology in a distributed team project. The total effort to pass this course is typically around 125 hours, including on-site workshops

Cross-platform Mobile Development 4 credits

Despite the fact that native mobile application development is still the preferable way for most of the IT industry, HTML5 and mobile cross-platform frameworks are gaining popularity. This is mainly due to the fact that cross-platform development does not require native development knowledge, and the possibility to maintain one code base. This course is for students who want to learn how to make the best design decisions for cross-platform solutions as well as which frameworks and tools that exist for implementing those solutions. The course will be delivered in a flexible manner to facilitate the combination of course work with your regular work in a company. The effort required for completing the Cross-platform Mobile Development course is about 105 hours, including 10 at Lnu. Course start spring 2017.

Digital marketing strategy 3 credits

To remain relevant, companies need to adopt a different approach to the traditional marketing practices and actively manage every stage of the customer journey. This course is for marketing managers, business developers, and other managers involved in the development and implementation of digital marketing strategy. The course focuses on digital marketing strategy and planning, technologies for digital marketing and the integration between these perspectives. The total effort to pass this course is typically around 80 hours including 10 hours at the university.

Testing for Web and Mobile Applications 3.5 credits

Web and mobile applications play a significant part in everyday life. For them to be successful and embraced by end users, a variety of tests need to be addressed. This course is for IT professionals who want to strengthen their knowledge in testing of web and mobile applications, including testing of functionality, performance, memory, interruption and usability. The course will be delivered in a flexible manner to facilitate the combination of course work with your regular work in a company. The effort required for completing the Testing for Web and Mobile Applications course is about 100 hours, including 10 at Lnu. Course start spring 2017.

Apply for courses

Interviews with alumni

Today, Eddie Freij works as CEO at Softwerk AB. Eddie studied the course Agile for business on the side, while also working.

What was the best thing about the course?

The course content suits participants who also work with these questions in their activities. A pragmatic approach to the subject put in relation to reality. There was a lot of interaction between the participants, which I really enjoyed. The teachers were good at moderating their classes, raising the level for the theoretical parts and at formulating concrete questions.

What was it like to study and work at the same time?

It worked really well since the physical get-togethers were divided over half days. This half day structure was good since you didn't lose a full day at work, which contributed to some peace at work. The scope of the course material felt just right and was sent out well in advance, which ensured that you had every opportunity to prepare yourself.

Have you had any practical use of the knowledge you acquired?

Yes, one direct benefit has been that we've lifted the subject internally on the agenda. This has created new insights about how we should continue working. We've made sure that the entire management group has taken the course to ensure that we're all on the same page. On a personal level, it has provided me with a greater understanding of the subject and given me valuable tips about different methods that can be applied directly into our activities.

Did you get the opportunity to discuss relevant problems with colleagues within your line of trade? If this was the case, what was it like?

One great advantage with the course was precisely the fact that we got to share our thoughts and listen to colleagues within our line of trade, to learn about the challenges they are dealing with. We could truly identify with many of each other's challenges. It felt really positive that we all chose to open up to each other. The fact that we were able to make these comparisons between our different activities was truly valuable. By using real-life examples from our work we could have concrete discussions within the group.

Fredrik talks about the courses that have been important for the development of Danfoss Power Solutions AB Fredrik Björn works as research & development manager and together with his colleagues at Danfoss Power Solutions AB he has taken several courses within computer/IT. In Fredrik's opinion, the courses have played an important part in how the company has decided to move forward.

What courses have you studied?

Agile methods for managers, platform-independent mobile development, and testing for web and mobile applications. There were always at least two people from Danfoss Power Solutions who took each course. Some from the company also took the course Agile for developers.

What was the best thing about the courses?

The fact that members of staff at our company have acquired relevant and in-depth knowledge about subjects that are of critical importance for how we choose to develop within our field of work at Danfoss Power Solutions.

What was it like to study and work at the same time?

It worked excellent thanks to the adapted arrangement with smaller modules of 3–4 credits each. Thanks to the course structure, the courses may be integrated, at least to some extent, with the individual development plan at work. The get-togethers were not more extensive than it being possible to prioritise them in your timetable. The model where you are expected to read the course literature on your own and then discuss the material with the course coordinator and your fellow curse mates at 3–4 occasions has worked well.

Did you get the opportunity to discuss relevant problems with colleagues in your line of trade?

Yes, we had very open and rewarding discussions during the physical get-togethers. It was useful and inspiring to learn from each other's experiences. I got some confirmation, but also new ideas and viewpoints. I believe that it's always best to meet in person for these types of discussions, but some of the course participants chose to take part via phone instead.

In what way have you had practical use of your new knowledge?

I have acquired in-depth knowledge about the quite comprehensive concept of agile methods, learnt what tools these comprise, and also gotten an insight into what the risks are and what mistakes others have done. The knowledge about agile methods has helped us at Danfoss Power Solutions to implement and apply the development model in a way that suits us and our collaboration with external software developers. We've been able to directly apply the current knowledge about development of mobile platforms in an ongoing project in which we're updating a platform for service and maintenance of our steering systems for construction equipment.